The Portland School Committee, which hasn't had a personnel subcommittee for several years, is taking steps to create one after wrestling with various employee-related concerns in recent months.
The issue will be discussed during a workshop at 7 tonight in Room 250 of Portland Arts and Technology High School, off Allen Avenue.
The personnel subcommittee would set parameters for contract negotiations with employee unions, according to a proposal from Joline Hart, the district's human resources director.
The subcommittee also would review salaries and benefits for non-union employees and develop personnel policies for review by the policy subcommittee, Hart recommended.
John Coyne, School Committee chairman, said that having a personnel subcommittee would have been helpful when the district's finance director and superintendent resigned recently, and when the committee considered a new teacher's contract last year that is expected to exceed this year's salary budget.
Coyne said he has talked to several people during the district's recent school budget crisis who were surprised that the committee doesn't have a personnel subcommittee to handle such matters.
The committee does have four-member finance and policy subcommittees.
The School Department in Maine's largest city has about 1,200 employees.
The subcommittee would design and implement the superintendent's evaluation process -- a responsibility that was transferred to the committee chairman when the personnel subcommittee disbanded, Hart said.
The committee's action follows a school budget crisis that led to the resignation last summer of Superintendent Mary Jo O'Connor and Finance Director Richard Paulson.
An investigator found that their decisions contributed to a $2 million deficit in the $82 million school budget that ended June 30. The budget recovery plan calls for Portland taxpayers to make up the difference.
The committee is scheduled to hold a workshop Nov. 7 to discuss the hiring process for a new superintendent.
Portland officials haven't decided whether to fill Paulson's position or have the city's finance staff oversee school money matters, as it has before.
As for this year's $85.7 million school budget, the teachers' salary account is already on track to be overspent, school officials said.
Although the School Committee approved the new contract last fall, some members have asked publicly in recent weeks for a better understanding of how the contract will affect this year's budget and future budgets.
The district budgeted about $350,000 this year for so-called lane changes, a facet of the new teachers' contract that's meant to recognize and encourage a wider variety of professional development.
The contract has a new salary scale with five lanes. Each lane has 10 steps, where in the past there were 31 steps.
Teachers can advance a lane by completing 225 hours of approved professional development, such as creating a new curriculum or taking university courses.
The contract sets no limit on the number of teachers who can apply for a lane change each year.
More than 100 teachers have been approved to move up the salary scale because they have competed required professional development work, Hart and teachers' union leaders said.
An additional 40 teachers have applied to be reviewed this fall, and more may apply in January.
As a result, the district will have to spend at least $435,000 on lane changes this fall and probably more in the spring, Hart said.
Also at tonight's workshop, the committee will discuss the Unity Project from the Center for Prevention of Hate Violence.
In addition, the finance subcommittees of the School Committee and City Council are scheduled to meet at 5:30 p.m. today in Room 321 at PATHS.
Staff Writer Kelley Bouchard can be contacted at 791-6328 or at:
kbouchard@pressherald.com
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